Weeknotes 36

Evening all. Party conference season is in full swing, as are preparations for our own conference now taking place on 22-24 October. We're also preparing for the first Culture, Tourism, and Sport Board of the LGA political year (don't ask why it starts in September), so all in all - very busy.

Highlights

1. Cllr Julie Jones-Evans, our Board Vice Chair and Library Champion, co-chaired the first meeting of our refreshed library sounding board for portfolio holders, along with Luke Burton , Director of Libraries at ACE. This brings together councillors with responsibility for libraries to discuss emerging policy and support offers, and to provide insight into what is going on with their local services. There were some very interesting contributions, including on the perennial issue of data.
2. Cllr Liz Green met with Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair of Arts Council England, to discuss the CTS Board workplan, the LGA White Paper, and how we work together to support local capacity building.

Positive progress

• The National Alliance for Cultural Services met again to discuss delivering on the culture commission recommendations; and this time had a focus on civic museums, with guest contributions from Tony Butler of Derby Museums Trust and Lucien Smith of DCMS Museums team. We gave quite a lot of consideration to models of delivery and funding, as you'd expect.
• I joined the final Steering Panel for the Culture Commons project on the future of local cultural decision making, looking at the draft set of recommendations the project will make. I also caught up with Trevor McFarlane later in the week to discuss the launch event for local government, which we are hosting on 6 November. Do book your free place.
• We now have a full set of amazing speakers for our two sessions at the LGA Annual Conference - Towards an Active Wellbeing Service: the preventative future of leisure on Day 1; and Creative industries: The future of growth on Day 2. The Innovation Zone will also be featuring Wakefield Council’s ‘Summer s'cool’ programme; Merton Council’s ambition to become a borough of sport; and North Yorkshire Council’s work with the Sport, Leisure and Culture Consultancy Ltd to deliver the transformation of leisure services across the county and promote active wellbeing. Make sure your Leaders, CEX, and Directors are all popping along.

Things you might like to know

• We've finalised, although not yet published, our response to the consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework. I'm pleased that the team has secured items on both creative industries and physical activity in the response.
• We've been helping brief for fringe sessions at the various party conferences, and it is good to see session on boosting physical activity, engagement with community organisations, and libraries all getting some attention.
• I joined a council portfolio holder and team to help think through their strategic approach to culture by sharing examples of strategies and governance structures from across the country, as well as what the new Government might look for from places seeking investment. It was very stimulating to see how the team took those possibilities and discussed how they might best play out in their area.
• I met Julie Russell Val Birchall and Donna Pentelow to discuss collaboration with CLOA and using their insight and expertise to inform the CTS Board and its workplan for the year.

Have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend.